Palestinians gathered Sunday to mark the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, 74 years after the creation of the State of Israel which forced more than 700,000 of them to exodus, in a tense context in recent days with the Israeli forces.
The demonstrations organized each year on May 15 across the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel, East Jerusalem annexed by the Jewish State, and inside Israel took place in a context of high tensions after the death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh at the age of 51.
This American of Palestinian origin was killed Wednesday by a bullet in the head during an intervention by the Israeli army in Jenin, a hot spot in the north of the occupied West Bank. She wore a bullet-proof vest marked “press” and a reporter’s helmet.
Israeli police have vowed to investigate after footage released around the world showed his coffin bearers struggling to keep it from falling on Friday as baton-wielding police swooped down on them and tore down Palestinian flags .
The incident was widely condemned by the international community, including Washington, the European Union and the United Nations.
“Shocking” images
Local commentators also denounced the Israeli intervention, as Abu Akleh’s coffin was taken out of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Jerusalem. “Friday’s footage shows a shocking display of unbridled brutality and violence,” writes Oded Shalom in the major Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot.
“The Jerusalem District Police have decided to severely crack down on anyone who dares to wave a Palestinian flag,” writes Shalom. “As if waving a flag — just a piece of cloth, for God’s sake — in a funeral procession for an hour or two would have any impact” on Israeli claims to control Jerusalem.
Israel bans public displays of Palestinian flags in Jerusalem.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has yet to react, avoiding controversy ahead of his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The Israeli military said a preliminary investigation could not determine who fired the fatal bullet at the journalist, noting that stray Palestinian fire or Israeli sniper fire targeting militants were both possible.
The Palestinian Public Prosecutor’s Office told him that an initial investigation had shown that “the sole origin of the shooting was the Israeli occupation forces”.
At Tel Aviv University on Sunday, three Israeli Arabs were arrested “for attacking protesters and police, and disrupting public order at the site,” according to a police statement.
Im Tirtzu, a right-wing Israeli movement, had organized a demonstration to counter the Palestinian rally marking the “Nakba”. According to Im Tirtzu, the three suspects attacked members of their movement.
5.7 million refugees
Al Jazeera posthumously broadcast on Sunday a report by Abu Akleh on the “Nakba”, which traces the fate of the Palestinian people with a focus on refugees and displaced persons, after Israel declared independence in 1948. More than 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the conflict surrounding the creation of the Jewish state.
Today, some 5.7 million Palestinian refugees are spread across the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, according to the UN. The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics estimates the Palestinian population at 13.8 million.
Daoud al-Zubeidi, 43, is the latest death in the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Wounded Friday during an Israeli raid in Jenin, he succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. He was the brother of Zakaria, who led the armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and briefly escaped from an Israeli prison last year.
The latest Israeli victim is Noam Raz, 46, a member of the special forces of the Israeli police, shot dead Friday in Jenin. He was buried on Sunday.
After suffering a series of attacks since March 22, Israel has carried out multiple operations in the occupied West Bank.